Operations

Commercial Fleet Sales Climb 3.7% in October

Sales of vehicles to commercial fleets from eight manufactures increased 3.7% to 49,801 in October with strong truck sales outweighing a nearly 30% decline in cars, according to Automotive Fleet data.

During the month, sales of pickups, vans, and SUVs increased 8.9% to 45,256 compared to October of 2016. Sales of passenger cars fell 29.9% to 4,545.

For the year to date, sales to commercial fleets have increased 1.8% to 568,882. Truck-based sales have increased 5.3% to 498,414, while car sales have fallen 17.9% to 70,468.

Sales to government fleets from five manufacturers increased 8.8% to 21,151 for the month with truck sales increasing 3.6% to 16,773 and car sales increasing 34.5% to 4,378. For the year, government sales fell 7.1% to 239,471 with car sales down 3.6% to 42,286 units and truck-based sales down 7.9% to 195,584.

Daily rental sales from nine manufacturers fell 1.6% to 127,778 units with a 4.7% increase in car sales to 59,744 units and a 7% decline in truck-based sales to 65,197 units. Year-to-date sales have fallen 13.6% to 1.35 million vehicles with a 17.8% decline in car sales to 644,911 and a 9.3% decline in truck-based sales to 706,974 units.

For all three segments, fleet sales in October were flat with an increase of 0.7% to 198,730 units with a 2.9% increase to 71,504 in car sales and a 0.5% decline to 127,226 units in truck-based sales. Year to date, the three fleet segments have fallen 9.3% to 2.14 million with a 17.1% decline in car sales to 757,665 and a 4.4% decline in truck sales to 1.38 million.

Bobit Business Media has been acquired by Gemspring Capital, a middle-market private equity firm. Bobit, which bought HDT in 2012, was founded by Ed Bobit in 1961 with Automotive Fleet and today is a successful business-to-business media company in the fleet, transportation, beauty, and law enforcement industries.